Left in Another Room
by hedwiggins
Summary: A muddy mission, car won't start, broken water pipes. What's a girl to do but go home with her boss?


With the encouragement of a couple of friends, I am submitting a short little drabble/humor story. Hope you enjoy it. As do others who write stories, I acknowledge these are not my characters and I earn no money from writing this or any other story about them. I just do it for the enjoyment.

Left in Another Room

The mission had been grueling from start to finish. And had turned up nothing of interest. There'd been rain … lots and lots of rain. Which created massive amounts of mud. Which ran down the hills that seemed to be everywhere they went. Hardly any ground that was long and flat. They'd had to trek several miles to and from their destination.

She really wasn't complaining, since she wasn't the only one soaked clear through, though she had been the only one that had taken a header into one of the mud rivers that flowed down a particularly long hillside. She'd slipped, slid and landed on her face, only to look up to see Col. O'Neill holding out a hand to help her up. Unfortunately for him, he had a look on his face that implied barely suppressed laughter, and so in a momentary loss of sanity, Sam had reached for the helping hand and pulled him right into the mud with her. And then couldn't help the giggles that tumbled out of her at the outraged look on his face.

Daniel's laughter didn't really help either of them, so when he made the mistake of stepping too close to them, he failed to notice Jack's arm snap out behind his legs. The next thing he knew he was on the ground, in the mud next to them.

Teal'c wisely stayed several feet away as the three thrashed around in the mud for a few moments like small children. He finally put an end to the free for all, by grabbing each individually by the collar of their jackets and hauling them to their feet.

When the group got back to the SGC, Sam quickly showered in the locker room and rinsed off most of the grime and mud from the mission, figuring she'd take a long, leisurely hot bubble bath when she got home and take care of the rest.

After a quick visit to the infirmary for the post-mission physical, Sam hurried to the surface to her car. Only to find that it wouldn't start. Luckily, Jack wasn't far behind her and offered her a ride home.

He stayed in the truck long enough to make sure she got to her door, only to see her bang her head on it and then kick it several times in frustration.

Getting out of his truck, he heard some very unladylike cursing as he got closer. She heard him come up behind her and turned toward him with a dejected pout on her face.

"The damn key broke in the lock and I can't get the door open!"

Jack had a very hard time keeping from laughing. Sam would _not_ have taken it well. At least here, though, there wasn't a river of mud she could dump him into. He asked if the key she'd given him for emergencies fit in the back door and a brilliant smile of hope lit Sam's face as she scurried around the side of the house, dragging Jack behind her.

Success! The key fit and the door was opened. Jack waited until Sam got inside and turned on a light. He was turning to leave when he heard the dulcet tones of his lovely second in command filtering down the hallway from the kitchen - a frustrated and annoyed "Nooooooo!" and "Son-of-a-Bitch …" and a string of cuss words he never in a million years thought he'd hear from the mouth of Samantha Carter.

He rushed in to find Sam standing in a puddle of water on her kitchen floor. She had opened the cabinet doors under the sink to find one of the pipes spewing forth water. She managed to get the water valve turned off, getting soaked in the process.

Jack hastened down to the basement to turn the water off to the entire house just to make sure nothing else burst and then helped Sam clean up the water. Since it was evening, on a weekend, they figured it was unlikely a plumber would be willing to make a house call, so Jack offered to let her stay in his guest room. She was too tired to argue, so she accepted gratefully, going to her bedroom to change into some dry clothing and then gathering a few pieces of other clothing along with some personal items from her bathroom, and they left. Jack was curious about the bulky bag of items she carried out to his truck, but kept his mouth shut. Noticing his glance at the bag, Sam's only comment was "Bubble bath," and left it at that.

At Jack's house, he showed her to the guest bedroom, then the guest bathroom, handed her a couple of plush towels and told her to make herself at home. Then he headed off to bed.

Jack dreamt that Sam appeared in his bedroom doorway, wearing cotton pajama bottoms and a cotton tank top, dragging a blanket and pillow in one hand, short hair sticking out in all directions, and clutching a teddy bear in her other hand. In the dream, Jack asked what she was doing. She muttered something unintelligible and tossed her blanket and pillow on the floor next to the bed, collapsing into the makeshift nest, and curled up with the teddy bear held close to her chest, and was soon snoring softly.

Jack loved when he dreamed about Sam. She even snored cutely as far as he was concerned.

Jack woke up very early and lay in bed wondering why. He glanced at his bedside clock to find it was only 4:00 a.m. and groaned. Deciding to check around the house to find out what might have wakened him, he sat up, only to realize he was hearing a very soft snoring coming from the floor next to his bed. He looked over the edge to discover it hadn't been a dream after all. Sam was sound asleep on the floor, curled up in a nest of blankets, a pillow under her head … and a teddy bear held tightly in her arms.

She looked so darned cute, he hated to wake her, but …

Poke … poke … poke.

"Huh! Wha-?" she looked up, bleary-eyed and surprised.

"Watcha doing down there?"

He wasn't even sure Sam was awake. She mumbled, almost unintelligibly "uh … bad dream, … mmmm, didn't want to be alone; … safer near you at night ... urgh … didn't want to disturb you, so …" She waved a hand at her nest of blankets.

She mumbled something else about not wanting to assume it'd be ok for her to climb into bed with him (at least that's what it sounded like), so she … and her voice drifted off into a soft little snore.

Jack shook her slightly and when she tried to curl into an even tighter bundle on the floor, hauled her to her feet and into the bed next to him. Tugging the covers over both of them, he wrapped his arms around her, and whispered "go back to sleep … it's more comfortable up here". Hearing a mumbled, "'Kay, … feel safe now …" as she burrowed under the covers, still clutching her teddy bear, Jack couldn't help the snicker that escaped him.

Sam woke the next morning feeling disoriented. She wasn't in the guestroom where she started out the night before. She still held her precious teddy bear in a loose embrace, but she also felt the pressure of another person against her back, and an arm draped loosely across her middle and teddy. She managed to turn enough to see who the other person was, … and then sat bolt upright in bed, dragging teddy along, saying, "OH ... MY ... GOD…"

Jack came instantly awake, also sitting bolt upright in bed, and said very eloquently, "Huh, wha- …" to find Sam staring at him, a shocked look on her face … clinging to her teddy bear. The situation was so ridiculous, and Sam looked just so darned cute, Jack burst out laughing, especially when she sputtered "How … when … what …"

"Very intelligent, Carter …" and the smirk got even deeper as Sam began to recall the night before and what she had said. Her face became a delicate shade of pink and one hand covered her eyes as she moaned, "Ooooh, … crap!"

"Something wrong, Carter?"

"I … I … just … remembered what I said last night …! Oh, God, you're never going to let me live it down are you, sir?" peeking at him between her fingers.

Jack pulled her hand away from her eyes, grinning, "Nope, not if I can help it! But don't worry, it'll just stay between the two of us for now." Then he looked at teddy and smirked, "Well, … the three of us …"

Then he scooted closer to Sam, nudging her shoulder as he said, "Sooo, … you feel safer sleeping next to me, huh?"

Sam blushed furiously and just nodded, refusing to look at him. Then a thought occurred to her, she sat up straight, turned to face him with a wicked smile that lit up her face and said thoughtfully, "Yeah, especially when I wake up some mornings and your sleeping bag is next to mine and you have your arm across me!" And grinned brilliantly at the stunned look on his face.

Now it was Sam's turn to enjoy Jack's embarrassment. "Yup," and then grinned even more wickedly as another thought occurred to her. "Oooh, … I wonder if I should ask Daniel and Teal'c if that happens when _they_ share a tent with you?"

Jack flopped back on the bed with a groan, and finally said, "Ok, ok, so let's make a deal. Neither of us tells on the other, deal? Uh, … leave it in the room – again?"

Sam was feeling quite evil at the moment, as she reached over to lay a hand on his chest, and patted him, saying, "Oh, I guess we can make that deal. After all, how often is it that I get to blackmail Jack O'Neill with anything?" Her eyes briefly glanced down his body, lingering only slightly, and she continued, "Er, … maybe you should do something about that sidearm, sir …" she started giggling (or was that a snort and a giggle?) and swiftly jumped out of bed, still clutching teddy, and hotfooted it out the door before Jack could reply.

He glanced down at himself and groaned, only slightly embarrassed.

His only comment was "Oy!"


End file.
